Illustrate your latest stupid goof

[TerraHertz]

Let's play a game. Show a picture of something you screwed up, and see if others can guess what dumbf*ck thing you did wrong.
No prizes, but hopefully plenty of laughs.

I'll start. I did this today.
You're looking at the film advance servo motor from an incredibly expensive 70mm film theater projector. FORTUNATELY a scrapped one, being disassembled for fun, ie I didn't just destroy more than my yearly income in a careless instant. But I did want to play with the servo motor.

[BradC]

Threw a brush spring into the never never?

[TerraHertz]

Bingo, you got it. I'm used to brush springs that are attached to the carbon brush. With this one I undid one screw on the terminal, slid the terminal to one side to see how things were underneath. Expecting one spring in the center. Oh wait, there's a small spring end right at the edge... aaaand it's gone. The visual effect was, it just vanished.

I did hear a 'tink' somewhere on the other side of the room. Among the piles of scrap metal, machining swarf, boxes of junk, etc. Tried sweeping the floor and finger-sifting the resulting dust pile. No luck. It's gone.

They are phosphor-bronze, ie non-magnetic. Also low resistance. Two brushes per terminal to minimize contact resistance and variation, since these are the servo tachometer connections.

[vtwin@cox.net]

my last oops:

[BradC]

my last oops:

I like his better. Anyone can make one of those. Heck I made 2 before I figured out how to stop it. Mine aren't that cute though.

[bsudbrink]

Oh wait, there's a small spring end right at the edge... aaaand it's gone. The visual effect was, it just vanished.

I did hear a 'tink' somewhere on the other side of the room. Among the piles of scrap metal, machining swarf, boxes of junk, etc. Tried sweeping the floor and finger-sifting the resulting dust pile. No luck. It's gone.

Any instrument when dropped will roll into the least accessible corner.
Corollary: It will not roll if it falls on shag carpeting and is small enough to hide.

The above applies to parts as well.   

[GreyWoolfe]

Oh wait, there's a small spring end right at the edge... aaaand it's gone. The visual effect was, it just vanished.

I did hear a 'tink' somewhere on the other side of the room. Among the piles of scrap metal, machining swarf, boxes of junk, etc. Tried sweeping the floor and finger-sifting the resulting dust pile. No luck. It's gone.

Any instrument when dropped will roll into the least accessible corner.
Corollary: It will not roll if it falls on shag carpeting and is small enough to hide.

The above applies to parts as well.   

Corollary:  all through hole ICs will land with the legs up.  The odds of this happening increase exponentially when you are barefoot and will land in such a location to guarantee you will step on it.

[tooki]

Bingo, you got it. I'm used to brush springs that are attached to the carbon brush. With this one I undid one screw on the terminal, slid the terminal to one side to see how things were underneath. Expecting one spring in the center. Oh wait, there's a small spring end right at the edge... aaaand it's gone. The visual effect was, it just vanished.

I did hear a 'tink' somewhere on the other side of the room. Among the piles of scrap metal, machining swarf, boxes of junk, etc. Tried sweeping the floor and finger-sifting the resulting dust pile. No luck. It's gone.

They are phosphor-bronze, ie non-magnetic. Also low resistance. Two brushes per terminal to minimize contact resistance and variation, since these are the servo tachometer connections.

Just stop looking for it and it’ll turn up!!!

[GregDunn]

Any instrument when dropped will roll into the least accessible corner.
Corollary: It will not roll if it falls on shag carpeting and is small enough to hide.

The above applies to parts as well.   

One important lesson I learned was NEVER to put berber carpet in a workshop.  Anything can hide in that pattern.  However, I have seen components land on it and bounce at a bizarre angle; when looking for something on the carpet I have to peruse a 6 ft radius to be sure.

[Alex Eisenhut]

I disassemble things like that inside a ziploc bag. That catches things that would like to fly away.
I took apart some odd 1960s SPDT switches like that to make sure the spring in the handle doesn't fly off to the stratosphere.

[TERRA Operative]

Bingo, you got it. I'm used to brush springs that are attached to the carbon brush. With this one I undid one screw on the terminal, slid the terminal to one side to see how things were underneath. Expecting one spring in the center. Oh wait, there's a small spring end right at the edge... aaaand it's gone. The visual effect was, it just vanished.

I did hear a 'tink' somewhere on the other side of the room. Among the piles of scrap metal, machining swarf, boxes of junk, etc. Tried sweeping the floor and finger-sifting the resulting dust pile. No luck. It's gone.

They are phosphor-bronze, ie non-magnetic. Also low resistance. Two brushes per terminal to minimize contact resistance and variation, since these are the servo tachometer connections.

Just stop looking for it and it’ll turn up!!!

I've found the most sure-fire way to find a lost part is to buy a replacement.
As soon as the new part turns up, so does the old part too......   

[BradC]

I disassemble things like that inside a ziploc bag.

What a brilliant idea. Stuff like that is why I hang around here. I *always* learn something valuable from someone who has a better way to divest the feline of its pelt.

[dnwheeler]

Put a piece of nylon stocking over a vacuum hose and suck away. The stocking should catch any screws, springs, and even dust bunnies!

[Iceberg86300]

The visual effect was, it just vanished.

I did hear a 'tink' somewhere on the other side of the room. Among the piles of scrap metal, machining swarf, boxes of junk, etc. Tried sweeping the floor and finger-sifting the resulting dust pile. No luck. It's gone.

ROFL.

Shot a carburetor jet out of an air gun from inside my garage "across the street" once. Double lane driveway between condos. Thought I had good grip on it, then GONE. Heard the "tink" of the neighbor's garage door.

After 20 minutes of looking I roped 3 roommates into a grid search. Damn thing bounced ~20ft, nearly back into our garage. Of course, we had concentrated the search near the neighbors.

Called it off & a roommate found it on the way back into the house. LOL. Last time I tried that. Now I lose carb parts in a gallon sized can of solvent.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[bsudbrink]

You ever have a five minute job that ends up taking an hour because you had to spend 55 minutes looking for that damned dropped screw? 

[Electro Detective]

You ever have a five minute job that ends up taking an hour

because you had to spend 55 minutes looking for that damned dropped screw?

Don't get me started mate   

My math: 55 minutes x pick any number over at least 300 times..

If I'm lucky..sometimes the elusive screw/nut/circlip appears a day or two later,
usually when someone else unaware of THE HUNT, just casually walks in and spots it immediately
after YT giving up on sweeping, magnet rolling, vacuuming, grovelling on the floor shining a torch etc etc etc. all that good free aerobix futile stuff   


or the little expletive rocks up years later, in another room or under the fridge,

or stuck to the adhesive on a chair or table leg missing it's felt pad 

[David Hess]

I will have to think a while about what my latest post worthy goof was.

The extractor spring from a Glock can hide in carpet across the room ... after bouncing off of your eye blinding you.

Seatbelt mechanisms in vehicles use a tightly wound coil spring to retract them.  The coil springs have a plastic cover usually stamped with "Caution: Do Not Remote".  They are not kidding.

[xrunner]

Trying to fix an issue in my latest vintage buy (Drake SPR-4 shortwave receiver) I was reflowing some solder joints and in the process created a solder bridge which cost me another 1/2 day of trying to find out what happened.

 

Fortunately it just made it lose CW/LSB receive with no damage.

[tooki]

My latest goof: I just released magic smoke from an RGB LED matrix panel (one of those cheap chinese video wall modules) because I mistakenly remembered it needing 12V.

It needed 5V.



(At least the replacement ICs are dirt cheap on LCSC...)

[larrybl]

I have a couple....
Floor jack needed fluid, removed the rubber plug, raised the jack, filled with fluid. (outside the shop). replaced the rubber plug, and lowered the jack (it was holding a riding mower up) rubber plug shot off like a bullet. Covered the hole with tape. 6 months later while looking for something else (in the shop) rubber plug was found on a top shelf.

Removing a valve spring from a small engine, as soon as the valve compressor (spring fully compressed) was removed from the engine the spring took off and ricketshot off of three walls. Took several hours to locate. Luckily I was not in the flight path.

Recent, weed whacker pull rope wouldn't retract. on dissemble (unlike the above seat belt spring warning) the tightly wound spring spronged and I came close to tossing the contraption and buying a new one.

[Electro Detective]

Has anyone done the   "weird mA value -glass encased springy fuse- rolls off the bench and breaks, or gets crushed on the bench" thing ? 

or... you do all the right things, but the metal ends pop off or twist/break due to aged/heat glue failure 

Then the hunt and wasted time/fuel to find another asap to finish the job,
and or test to see if another T or F value will suffice,
and or be better rated than the factory fitted one   

and then there's the 'you can't buy these fuses in singles' thing
and have to fork out for an overpriced 3 or 10 fuse packet,
which leads to a 'short fuse' situation years later     not being able to find them to use in another similar fuse scenario   

...I reckon some people have jumped off bridges for lesser reasons 

[David Hess]

If I didn't crush it, then I drill holes in the ends of the fuse and solder in the proper gauge of copper wire based on fusing current.

[Electro Detective]

@ Mr. Hess, whilst I have no doubt in your abilities, good luck doing that with an exotic spring and solder blob 50ma or 63ma T-Fuse (from post horse and cart circa?)

that only  a magnifying visor and or low current ohm check verifies it being dead or alive 

[GlennSprigg]

Dear TerraHertz......
I've recently been reading a whole pile of your, should we say, 'Musings' on you website, like......
http://everist.org/NobLog/20130904_Retarded_ideas_in_comp_sci.htm       
Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying it as a distraction, but you seem to enjoy being verbally angry!!!   
So I can just imagine the choice words you said to yourself, trying to find that spring !!!   

[CJay]

Any instrument when dropped will roll into the least accessible corner.
Corollary: It will not roll if it falls on shag carpeting and is small enough to hide.

The above applies to parts as well.   

One important lesson I learned was NEVER to put berber carpet in a workshop.  Anything can hide in that pattern.  However, I have seen components land on it and bounce at a bizarre angle; when looking for something on the carpet I have to peruse a 6 ft radius to be sure.

A colleague was using a microsim with an adapter, it was a bit loose so he'd put a little tape onto it to hold it, while changing it into a new phone he dropped it.

We spent 45  minutes looking for it, it had bounced and stuck itself to the underside of the base of a wheeled office chair